I have studies Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Teaching, Training, Coaching, Music and a raft of short, unrelated things that were just for the experience.

What Works?

That is the question that needs answering.

The answer is not black and white; in fact it is not possible to answer with a 100% certainty.

What I can assure you of is this:

SOME OF IT WORKS FOR EVERYONE, and

NONE OF IT WORKS FOR EVERYONE.

Success And Failure

I have had success with some things and miserable failures with others.

I can assure you that I have learnt a lot and some of the things I have learnt apply to everybody, including you. I am not a genius. I am not stonking rich. I do not have a “system” whereby you can make a million by next week and solve all your problems.

I can offer you the benefits of my experience for nothing. It is free.

I have nothing to sell you.

Why Are You Doing This Crazy Thing?

Well now, the answer to that lies in the first secret of success.

Secret no.1

I want to leave a legacy. I feel I need to leave behind me, when I die, something that will make people happier. If being happier means richer, that is OK too.

I have found that when I give away what I want most, then the return I get is worth more than money.

It might not come back to you straight away but, in time, it will.

It might not come back in the same form you gave out, it will come back.

Example Of Secret no.1

I was working on one of my projects; a market stall selling crystals, associated bits and bobs and incense.

I had a business partner and I had offered to work for nothing for 6 months to help get the business off the ground. We shared the work and he had a good source for buying the products.

One day he asked me if I could run the stall for a few days since his mother was moving house, from South Africa to the U.K.

At that time I was fairly lonely. My two sons lived a long way away and had their own lives to sort out.

Karma?

When his mother arrived, it turned out she was the secret source of his products. She had worked for years as a buyer for one of the world’s biggest suppliers of gem stones. She was really pleased that her son had set up his business and that I was helping him. She invited me home for Christmas and offered to help if I ever wanted to start up in business.

What goes around, comes around.

Secret No. 2

When I was 9 / 10 years old, I was always inventing things. Not particularly good things, I must add. They sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. My mother was nursing at nights in those days and she was looking after one specific patient. Sir Alliott Verdon Roe. To quote my mother: “He had had almost everything removed that could be removed from his body and was dying.”

The Gift Of Belief

He signed an autobiography and sent it to me through my mother. In it he wrote” Remember, You never know what you can do until you try.”

The secret behind this is one of the most difficult to accept for most people, so I will offer you a proof that it is true.

If you are going shopping, do you make a decision to do it or just walk out the door and do it? Do you have a bath or shower without making that decision?

Before taking any action, we make a decision to do it. In order to make a decision, we must think about that action.

I know there are reactions to situations but the majority of things we do, we think about first.

Chicken And Egg?

Which comes first, the thought or the action? It must be the thought. The corollary is that without thought there can be no action and so you cannot do what you do not think about.

Let’s look at this again. Let’s take 2 actions and call them “A” and “B.” You can only do “A” if you think about it. In fact, you must not only think about it but believe it is possible to do. In fact you will need some kind of image in your mind of what that action “A” looks like, feels like, sounds like etc.

The Opposite, “I Can’t.”

What follows from this is that you need to believe you can do something before you do it. That implies that if you can’t believe in it, you cannot do it. Food for thought, eh?

Here’s the secret: “Believe you can do it, imagine yourself doing it and you are 99% certain of doing it.”

I know I put 99 and not 100%. That is because there is always the possibility you have chosen something impossible (1%.)

How does this help?

Try deciding to get up early or eat 500 calories tomorrow or something short term you feel you “can’t do.”

Imagine yourself doing it in your mind. Run a little movie in bright colours with strong music and moving pictures. Do this as you lie in bed at night, just before going to sleep. Run the movie several times and fall gently asleep.

NEXT DAY

You will find yourself feeling quite different and find it easier to take that action. If it does not work 100%, then repeat the process the next night. What have you got to lose?

O.K., that is the tester, taster, the experiment. When you are feeling confident that it is working, try something bigger. Look at what you really want in life and see yourself getting it. Imagine yourself in the new situation. Imagine yourself succeeding in achieving your goals.

bigger. Look at what you really want in life and see yourself getting it. Imagine yourself in the new situation. Imagine yourself succeeding in achieving your goals.

You may well find all sorts of new things occur to you which will change the way you behave or think to help yourself get where you want to.

Win The Lottery

This does not work on winning the lottery because that is outside of your control. There is only one way to guarantee you win the lottery: bet on every combination of numbers that are possible. You will have to buy about 14 million tickets. It is physically impossible and you may win less money than it has cost you. Of course, you could be lucky with just one ticket.

Third Secret Of Success

Before we look at this one, I will only give you 3 here because there is a lot to think about and a lot to practice. After this secret I will pull all three together and you will hopefully be able to form a strategy for yourself: something that will help you in your future.

The third secret is based on examining how people learn and how successful they are. There are degrees of successand we will look at just the average person learning something quite well, first. We can then look at being extremely successful.

The 1000 Trick

If you practice anything for 1000 hours with the intention of improving, you will become good at it.

There is a lot of debate on this because if you simply repeat something without thinking or planning a progression, (mindless practice,) you may well struggle. Mindful practice, with a steady progression of planned improvement, will always make a major difference to your ability.

Practice alone is not enough.

Look at secret 1 and 2 and combine the three into a powerful way forward to achieve your goals.

Mindful practice includes one more element: desire.

If you want to be better, want to learn, want to be successful: imagine yourself succeeding many times a day. Use your success movie just before sleeping and imagine yourself practicing the next day and the day after, and the day….

It is a good idea to take a break every now and again. I take a break one day a week, with no practice.

The 10,000 Trick

There is, of course, the next stage. If you want to become very, very successful, your aim needs to be 10,000 hours of practice.

Do It All At The Same Time

Let’s pull it all together.

Figure out what you want.

Imagine yourself doing it successfully.

Practice it regularly and often.

I call this my THINK PLAN DO strategy.

Link To Pat’s Plan

There is more to success and more to achieving goals than this. This simple strategy will get you going and will hopefully give you some confidence that what you felt was difficult or maybe impossible, is certainly possible.

If you are reading this and have read it all then you have saved yourself a lot of money in books and courses and seminars and workshops and….

Here’s a little trick I learnt from a friend who ran weekend workshops years ago. They were the toughest, hardest and scariest I have ever come across. They work. It is about asking yourself a question.

When you find yourself thinking: “I would really like to be…..But I can’t because…”

Go back, only in your imagination and ask yourself this: If I could do it, how would it look? How would it sound? How would it feel?”

Then go back to the 3 secrets you now know and do a little bit of practicing at being successful. A little bit of believing in yourself. You can be much more than you are and do much more than you think you can.